


It's Lit

by JoMouse



Series: Claudia's Puntastic Life [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Puns, Domestic Fluff, Don't copy to another site, Established Relationship, Fireworks, Fluff, Fourth of July, Future Fic, Kid Fic, M/M, Puns & Word Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25078654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Claudia is scared of fireworks; Derek tries to help out.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Claudia's Puntastic Life [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1583203
Comments: 15
Kudos: 104





	It's Lit

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and Salutations!
> 
> First off, I hate Fourth of July because I hate fireworks (they're pretty but the noise causes me a ton of anxiety) and, well, really not feeling like celebrating America this year. However, I love Claudia Cheyenne Stilinski and her obsession with puns and wanted to write something and the holiday provided a decent amount of fodder.
> 
> I literally just finished writing and rereading this so I have no beta to thank today. Any glaring spelling or grammatical errors, please feel free to kindly point them out.
> 
> I hope everyone is having a good day and enjoy the story!
> 
> xx-Joey
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

Derek shoved his hands in his pockets as he made his way up the stairs to Stiles’ house. He lifted a hand to knock but didn’t hear any heartbeats so he pulled the key Stiles had given him out and let himself inside. Moving into the kitchen he checked the calendar on the fridge and saw that Claudia, Stiles’ daughter, had a Daisy Scout meeting that morning. He was surprised since it was a holiday but shrugged it off and decided to start making lunch for the three of them.

He was pulling the flatbreads out of the oven when he heard Stiles’ Jeep pull into the drive. Setting the pans carefully on the kitchen island, he arranged the bowls of toppings around them before going to greet Stiles and Claudia at the front door.

Claudia, dressed in her little blue smock and beanie, bounced through the door and launched herself at Derek as soon as her eyes landed on him. He caught her easily, tickling her tummy while he flashed his blue eyes at her and she flashed gold in return. He leaned over to give Stiles a kiss and carried Claudia into the kitchen, smiling when she exclaimed over the pizzas waiting to be made.

He set her down and she climbed up on a stool, reaching for the pineapple, something that Derek would never understand. They talked about her Daisy meeting and Derek promised to help her with her Eco-Learner Badge. The topic went on to the barbecue at Scott’s house that night before a pack run in the woods; it was a big deal because the full moon fell on Independence Day. 

“Are you looking forward to the fireworks tonight?” Derek asked, his head whipping up when he heard a whimper and saw Stiles shaking his head violently. His gaze drifted toward Claudia who was no longer on the stool next to him. 

Looking around, he followed the whimpering sound to the living room and a trembling blanket on the couch. He looked back at Stiles as he rubbed his hands over his face before meeting Derek’s gaze. “She’s terrified of fireworks. Always has been.”

“And you were going to take her on the run tonight?” Derek asked, shocked, and slightly angry that Stiles would expose her to something that would traumatize her. “What if she loses control of her powers?”

“We’ll be surrounded by pack, so I figured we would be safe,” Stiles retorted defensively and Derek immediately regretted saying anything. “I was hoping it would be enough of a distraction from the sounds.” His shoulders dropped. “Maybe we should skip the barbecue and stay home.” He looked around. “Soundproof the house or something.” Derek saw the sparks already forming at the tips of his fingers.

The blanket was tossed away and Claudia glared at them. “We have to go to the barbecue! Amy is going to be there!” she shouted. “She talked about it all morning!” Derek knew that they would have a fight on their hands if they tried to keep Claudia from seeing Amy; Scott’s daughter was her best friend and they spent as much time together as possible.

“Of course, we’ll go,” Stiles called to her, but his lips were turned down in a frown and he smelled of hopelessness. 

Derek reached over, running a hand from his shoulder down his bicep, squeezing gently. He wanted to help and he hoped he could but he struggled to ask, “Can I talk to her?”

Stiles shrugged and gestured towards Claudia before turning his attention back to his pizza, but Derek could see him wipe at his eyes before he was completely turned away. Stiles was a great dad, but sometimes he let his insecurities get to him and Derek hated knowing he was doubting himself at that moment. He’d stepped up to the plate when the pack in New York had contacted him with a half-wolf, half-Spark child abandoned and alone, taking her in and making her his own without hesitation. He’d raised her mostly on his own for six years before moving back to Beacon Hills and his Pack.

Derek hadn’t even known that Stiles had become a father until the past Halloween when a little girl in a pun-tastic costume had dragged her father, the one true love of Derek’s life, back into his world. In less than twenty-four hours, he’d gone from Mr. Derek to Uncle Derek and he was happy with that until a few months later she’d called him Papa and the name had stuck. Although Claudia had given him the title, he struggled to fill a parental role without stepping on Stiles’ toes. A part of him hoped that maybe with this situation, he could show Stiles he’d be a good parental figure to Claudia and a good mate for him.

Settling next to Claudia on the couch, he rubbed his hands over his thighs as he tried to organize his thoughts. After a few moments of silence, she climbed into his lap and gripped his cheeks in both of her hands, flashing her golden eyes at him. He flashed blue back and ran a hand over her hair. “Sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I didn’t know you didn’t like fireworks.”

“I  _ like _ them!” she countered. “They’re so pretty but I don’t like the noise.” She shuddered and Derek’s lips turned down in sympathy, remembering many nights of hiding from the thunder of storms or the boom of fireworks, enduring his sister’s teasing until their mother made them leave him alone.

He told Claudia about those days, about crying when Laura would jump up behind him, shouting, “Red, white and BOOM!” sending him stumbling; he’d even fallen down the stairs and broken his arm one year. He grinned when Claudia giggled and started repeating the phrase to herself; he’d thought that would be something the little punster would enjoy. 

“Did your meanie sister get in trouble?” she asked and Derek nodded.

“She had to stay home with me in the library and missed all the Fourth of July fun with the rest of the family,” Derek told her, remembering climbing to the top of the shelves to avoid Laura’s wrath at missing out on everything, even though it had been completely her own fault.

“Why did you get punishment?”

“What do you mean?” Derek asked. 

“Why did you have to stay in the library?” Claudia asked, frowning. He knew she liked books as much as he did but he could tell that spending a night in the library instead of running with Pack sounded like the worst punishment ever.

He smiled as he shook his head. “No, I  _ chose _ to stay in the library. It was soundproofed so I couldn’t hear the fireworks, just feel the vibrations but those weren’t so bad. I would stay in there and read books.”

“Weren’t you lonely?” Claudia asked, petting at his face and looking into his eyes.

“A little, but I felt safe so I stayed,” Derek told her. “Until I didn’t have the library anymore.” He frowned, swallowing down the tears threatening to choke him.

“Cause the evil hunter lady burned her house down,” she said with a growl that brought Stiles into the room but Derek held up a hand, stopping him from getting too close. She threw her arms around Derek’s neck and pressed his face into her neck, soothing him and he would have laughed if he weren’t so emotional at the amount of love coming off of her. “Now, you have our house, Papa. Dad will soundproof one of the rooms for you and you and I will stay there during the fireworks.”

“If you’re both staying, I’m staying,” Stiles said, pulling his phone out.

Claudia gave a very determined nod to Derek before clambering off his lap and hurrying off to her room, mumbling under breath low enough that even Derek was having a hard time figuring out what she was saying. Derek pushed himself to stand and crossed to Stiles, pulling him into a hug. “What are you doing?”

“Texting Scott. Peanut’s made up her mind, there’s no going back now,” he said, smiling. “Good thing we have a ton of food on hand.” He started moving around the kitchen and Derek watched for a minute trying to parse out Stiles’ mood and failing before joining him in preparing dinner for the three of them.

“That was alright?” Derek asked when the silence dragged on between them, uncomfortable in a way their silences hadn’t been in a long time, not since before the pool incident. Stiles turned to him, eyes wide, and then narrowed in confusion. “I know you were looking forward to the get-together.”

Stiles grinned. “Fourth of July has been just me and Claudia for years, at least we’ll have you this year.” He knocked their hips together and continued putting together hamburgers. “Now, can you make some ice tea. Tonight calls for iced tea.”

“Any particular reason why?” Derek asked, digging through the cupboards and pulling out the box of bags for iced tea and grabbing the jar they use to make tea.

“Gotta sip some of that liber-tea,” Stiles said, pressing his lips together as Derek’s head snapped up to meet his and groaned. “What? You though she became a punster all on her own?”

“Oh, I knew she didn’t but that was really bad and just for that…” He put the box back in the cupboard and went to the fridge to pull out lemons. “We’re having lemonade instead.”

“Well, you know-”

“This is no life handing me lemons, Stiles,” Derek stopped him.

Stiles shrugged and turned to the sink to wash his hands. “Ah, well, like I always say, ‘ _ squeeze _ the day’.”

“Da-ad!” Claudia shouted from the other room. “That was terrible! It was  _ pun-questionably pun-fortunate _ !”

“Don’t you start,” Derek muttered as Stiles flicked water off his hands. 

“Oh, it’s on! One, two, three, four, I declare a pun war!” he shouted and Derek put his hands over his face, cursing when some lemon juice got into his eyes.

He could hear two heartbeats revving up for a long battle and he just was not in the mood for it. “Absolutely no pun wars! I cannot take one more bad pun!” Derek shouted, trying not to laugh at the pout on Stiles’ face.

“What about good ones?” Claudia asked, appearing in the doorway with her arms over her chest and a grin on her face. “I’ve got an entire pun-epedia after all.”

“No. No. No!” Derek said, rushing at her and tickling her sides, laughing when she squealed and darted away from him. 

He gave chase, hearing Stiles follow as they raced through the living room and up the stairs to the bedrooms. They passed Claudia’s and Stiles and ended up in the spare bedroom. Derek skidded to a stop when he passed through the doorway. The blackout curtains that Stiles had installed were closed and the walls were covered with hand-drawn pictures of fireworks. The bed was covered with blankets and pillows that were pulled from the other two beds in the house as well as a few extras that Derek recognized from the hall closet.

All of Claudia’s favorite stuffed animals were on the bed as well and Derek had the uneasy feeling they were staring at him, judging him for looking around the room in wonder. His eyes fell on the tea party table that usually sat in the corner of Claudia’s room. He pointed to it and looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“It’s for dinner,” she said. “This will be our room. Soundproof it, daddy. The sun will be going down soon.”

Stiles nodded and waved his fingers and the feel of the room changed but in a warm hug under a heavy cotton duvet way, not an uncomfortable way. “We still have a few hours until nightfall, so until then, why don’t you come and help Derek make cookies for tonight.” 

“Did you get the stuff for fireworks pudding cookies?” she asked, hands clasped in front of herself as she bounced on her toes.

“Is the sky blue?” he asked.

“Sometimes,” she responded, looking confused and Derek had to laugh, hiding his mouth when they both turned to glare at him.

They spent the rest of the afternoon making cookies and preparing dinner. Derek could hear fireworks in the distance long before nightfall and he nudged Stiles to let him know. He nodded and waved a hand over the grill to hurry the cooking of the burgers and steaks. 

Soon, they were in the room and closing the door just as a loud boom filled the sky and shook the house. Claudia yelped and slammed the door shut before diving for the bed and under the covers. Stiles frowned and Derek took the plate from him and set it on the table before tugging him over to the bed.

He lifted the blankets and saw Claudia curled around the stuffed wolf Derek had gotten her for Christmas, face buried in the fur of his neck so that only her golden glowing eyes were visible. “Hey,” Derek said, softly. “The door is closed, we won’t hear them anymore. Come on out and have some food?”

“C’mon, Peanut,” Stiles said. “We don’t want all this good food to go to waste.”

It took a couple more minutes of coaxing before she got out of the bed and over to the table. It didn’t take long for her to return to her usual self and Derek even ignored a few puns that escaped her lips, chuckling when she held up her hamburger and started singing, “I like big buns…” Thankfully, Stiles cut her off instead of joining in because Derek had left his phone in the other room and wouldn’t be able to record that performance.

After the food was gone and they were nibbling on cookies curled up on the bed, Claudia between them both, discussing what they wanted to do next. “We should’ve brought the television in,” Derek commented as the girl started to get antsy. “We could have watched fireworks with the volume off.” 

She perked up at that and wiggled until her arms were free and started to wave them in the air. Derek watched her as Stiles flicked a hand towards the wall, the switch flipping down on its own, dousing the room in darkness just as the air around them filled with flashing lights. Silent fireworks that rivaled some of those he’d seen in the years since he’d stopped hiding in the library.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Stiles asked as the light show continued, even as Claudia snuggled into them, her eyelids drooping and Derek suspected Stiles was helping the magic along.

Derek nodded as he looked at the colors and then pressed a kiss to Claudia’s head and bumped his nose against Stiles’ cheek. “Really cool.” He moved to nip his ear. “In fact, you could say  _ it’s lit. _ ” 

He burst into laughter, rousing Claudia as Stiles shoved him hard enough that he fell off the bed with a thud. The two others jumping off and landing on top of him and falling into giggles and Derek was thankful for his two crazy punsters.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on tumblr. I'm 'josjournal' over there!
> 
> Link to the cookie recipe (untried by me but sound really interesting): https://www.crazyforcrust.com/fireworks-pudding-cookies/
> 
> Also, if you have any good (or terrible) puns that you'd like to see in future stories, please feel free to leave them in the comments!


End file.
